Falafel are easy to make, but there are traps and pitfalls along the way! Make perfect falafel with this recipe, together with Tahini Sauce and a Cucumber & Yoghurt dip. Do you know the answer to the mystery????

Place the chickpeas in a food processor and process for about 1 minute. Remove and place in a large bowl.

Process the onion and garlic.

Mix all the falafel ingredients together in a bowl. Press firmly into golf-ball sized balls.

Deep fry the falafel for about 3 minutes until they are golden brown and crispy.

Prepare the Cucumber & Mint dip: Crush the garlic clove into a large bowl. Add in the yoghurt and mix well.

Peel the cucumber, cut in half lengthways, scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon, and grate the remaining flesh. Add this into the yoghurt together with the mint. Season with black pepper and mix well.

Prepare the Tahini Sauce: Crush the garlic clove into a bowl. Add in the salt, tahini paste and the lemon juice and beat to a creamy sauce.

Titli's Tips

Nutritional information is given for the falafel only and not the accompanying dips.

Take my advice: Never, never, NEVER use canned chickpeas to make falafel. The way the chickpeas are cooked means that they tend to have a high moisture content which will cause your falafel to disintegrate when you try to fry them. You have been warned…

Other falafel variations are:

Use dry broad beans (fava beans) or a 50:50 broad bean:chickpea mix (Egypt).
Add a couple of teaspoons of parsley into the mix (Palestine, Egypt).
Add a chopped leek into the mixture (Egypt).
Use black-eyed peas instead of chickpeas and serve with red chili sauce (Yemen, apparently!).

Finally, it is possible to bake the falafel although the taste and texture will be different.